Incumbent councilor, first-time candidate win Winslow council elections
Nov. 6—WINSLOW — An incumbent councilor and a political newcomer were victorious in their bids for two open seats on the Town Council.
Dale Macklin and Doris Labranche will be sworn into two open council seats in November after winning election Tuesday night.
About 73% of Winslow's roughly 6,100 registered voters cast ballots in this year's election, according to Town Clerk Audra Fleury.
Incumbent councilor Macklin defeated first-time candidate Steve Soucy in the race for the District 2 seat on the Winslow Town Council. The vote was 459 to 343, according to unofficial results.
Winslow councilors are elected to three-year terms and receive $75 per meeting rather than an annual salary or stipend.
Macklin, 68, is completing his first three-year term on the Town Council and previously served as the council chairman in 2022. Infrastructure and education were the primary tenants of his campaign, Macklin said in October.
Soucy, 54, is the owner of Patriot Power Wash in Winslow. This election was Soucy's first time running for elected office, though he applied earlier this year for a spot on the town's charter revision committee. Soucy's campaign focused chiefly on fiscal responsibility and government transparency.
Labranche beat write-in Kyla Mihalovits by an unofficial tally of 572 to 260 in District 4, which includes the area of Winslow that is north of Clinton Avenue and south of Simpson Avenue.
Incumbent Councilor Ray Caron was slated to run against Labranche but abruptly resigned from the council and dropped his reelection bid Sept. 10, five days after the window closed for residents to declare their candidacy.
Labranche, 59, is a Winslow resident of over 30 years who campaigned on lowering the municipal budget and supporting local law enforcement. She has previously volunteered with several local organizations, including the Bread of Life's Veterans Shelter in Augusta and the Waterville Boys & Girls Club.
Mihalovits, 37, announced her write-in campaign days after Caron's resignation in a post to the Winslow ME Community Builders Facebook group she moderates. She ran on a platform anchored by finishing town infrastructure projects and bringing civility to town politics in a time of turmoil.
While Maine law requires write-in candidates to formally declare their intent to run, there is no such requirement in Winslow, Town Clerk Audra Fleury said, assuaging some residents' concerns about the legality of Mihalovits' late candidacy.
The last year has been contentious among Winslow councilors. In recent months, a councilor requested a protection order against the town manager, while two others may have violated privacy laws by seeking medical information about a fellow councilor recovering from a coma.
Councilors have convened about a half-dozen closed-door executive session meetings since August to discuss personnel matters and consult with legal counsel.
Macklin, Mihalovits and Labranche all said during the campaign that more needs to be done to ease the political bickering and drama in and outside the town office.
Soucy said he believes Winslow's political divide is being fueled by newspaper coverage of the town's politics, and that residents could bridge it by ousting incumbent councilors in the election.
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